Madarao
Madarao (斑尾) is Yoshimori's demon dog. He has a rivalry with Tokine's demon dog Hakubi, but is the more experienced of the two. Appearance Madarao's fur is snow white; his eyes are pale green with a light green color for the pupil. Two thin black circles surround his pupil. He displayed noticeable features, such as the black outline around his mouth, which contain his jagged, sharp teeth. In addition, on his tail he has three gray circles surrounded by a dot. He wears a purple "collar" that is designed to seal away his true form. Pink clouds follow him to indicate that he is an ayakashi. Normally, his body is much like a snake; a head, body, and no legs, but at certain times, two front legs appear, which he uses to "run" in the air. In his released form, he grows ten times bigger and two front legs and two hind legs. He takes the form of his former self: a demon-wolf. His circles remain intact on his back and tail. He also has some green lines near his eyes (like the purple lines near Kouya's eyes in his true form) in his true form. Personality Madarao is an aggressive, yet lazy, demon dog. He puts his life before his allies, mainly Yoshimori, and is a very powerful being by himself. He enjoys eating smaller ayakashi, insulting Hakubi (and the Yukimura's), (playfully) scolding or teasing Yoshimori, and sleeping. Madarao has stated numerous times that he "fell in love" with Tokimori Hazama, and that "love knows no gender or species".Kekkaishi anime, Episode 11 The first such instance occured during the encounter with Kouya and had confused many manga readers. Madarao's Japanese consists of many set phrases and parts of speech that are normally used only by women, thus many had assumed he was female since his speech mannerisms was the only information they had. In an early tankoban omake, the manga artist tries to clear up the confusion by stating that Madarao is not only male, but is in fact gay--something that was always the case since the series one-shot was published. However, she notes that ayakashi don't really have genders and thus it really shouldn't matter how one looks at it. Whatever his true feelings are, Madarao's devotion to Tokimori is absolute. He also has a somewhat comical side, as after Yoshimori placed his seal collar, he asked for deer meat "before I die". Madarao wanting deer meat quickly becomes a running gag in the series. Shigemori Sumimura values Madarao's opinion, and occasionally has him evaluate Yoshimori's progress.Kekkaishi anime, Episode 26 History Madarao grew up on a mountain with Kouya, his childhood friend. They both grew up as wild mountain dogs, though Madarao went by Ginro (銀露) at the timeKekkaishi anime, Episode 11 They enjoyed hunting until humans over-hunted their prey and only food source, which made the mountain into a barren, desolate rock. Madarao chose to leave, accompanied by a reluctant Kouya, but every other place they visited in hopes of survival were the same, which led to Madarao starving to death. This sent Kouya into a blind rage, and he was killed while attacking a human soldier. Madarao went back to his birthplace as a demon dog, and seeing Kouya had met the same fate, they stayed on the barren mountain. Kouya had become far more aggressive, especially towards humans, which later led Tokimori Hazama and a then living Hakubi to the mountain, intending to destroy them. Madarao willingly chose to serve Tokimori, but asked that Kouya be released. At some point, Madarao promised to aid the Sumimura Clan at Tokimori's request (Hakubi doing the same with the Yukimura Family), and has remained with them ever since. Though he still considers Tokimori his true master, Madarao takes a certain amount of pride in his association with the family, having lived with them longer than he had Kouya. Powers and Abilities Sealed Sense of Smell: As a demon dog, Madarao has an extremely high sense of smell that he uses to find the ayakashi Yoshimori needs to destroy. Apparently, his sense of smell is so great, he can tell if someone has special powers, as he was able to tell that Yurina Kanda was able to see Ayakashi. Regeneration: If Madarao takes too much damage or is somehow destroyed, he will automatically return to his doghouse, where his true body is stored, and awaken when fully regenerated.Kekkaishi anime, Episode 3 Both Madarao and Hakubi were bound to Karasumori because their true bodies remained in the care of their families, and the dogs could only travel so far from them.Kekkaishi anime, Episode 44 However, this is no longer true for Madarao: the shikigami of Sumiko Sumimura removed Madarao's true body (in orb form) from the rock kept in his doghouse, so that he could accompany her and Yoshimori while they relocate Chushinmaru.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 291 Unsealed Illusions: In his fight with Kouya, Madarao used his illusions to distract him so he could inject Kouya's body with poison.Kekkaishi anime, Episode 12 Poison: He injected a powerful poison into Kouya, and covered it up with an anesthetic to make sure he doesn't notice so it'll have time to work. The Silver Rain he used also acted like a needle, injecting poison into Kouya using only one of the shards that stuck into Kouya's shoulder. Silver shards/ Silver Rain: He whips his tail forward, facing Kouya, and shoots out a massive stream of sharp, silver shards. Trivia *Madarao, like Hakubi, gets his name from a physical trait he has. Madarao's name is a combination of "madara", which means spots and "midori" which means light green, referring to the green spots that cover his body. His original name, Ginro, was possibly a combination of "gin" which means silver and "shiro" which means white, referring to his silver-white colored fur. *Madarao is older than Hakubi, both in terms of their actual age and original death dates. Madarao had already become an ayakashi when he first met Hakubi, who was still alive at the time. *Toshimori's friends commonly refer to Madarao as "Masarao". *Since he became Yoshimori's partner, Madarao has died and regenerated several times, though Yoshimori did not realize that Madarao would return the first time this happened.Kekkaishi manga, Chapter 14, page 13 References Category:Characters Category:Ayakashi Category:Sumimura Family